Businessweek Archives

Our New Blog

Before I welcome you to BusinessWeek’s new Working Parents blog, I’d like to clarify something. We recognize that all parents, whether they go to an office and take home a paycheck, or not, are working parents. Being a good parent, after all, requires plenty of hard work.

But for the purposes of this blog, working parents are the ones who populate two overlapping, not always compatible worlds: the world of business and BlackBerries and the world of parent-teacher conferences, after-school activities, childcare issues, and lego.com to myspace.com.

The seven writers of this blog all have minor-age children and jobs at BusinessWeek. We move in and out of our two worlds every day, multiple times a day. We put interviewees on hold on Line 1 so we can speak to the school nurse on Line 2. We take frequent Gap breaks to keep our kids clothed. We struggle with time management and health emergencies and homework questions--in the office, on the way to and from the office, at home while we're awake, and even while we sleep.

We bloggers don’t have child psych or organizational behavior degrees; we haven’t appeared on Oprah to discuss the super-mom/ super-dad myth. Yet we’re all experts by virtue of necessity, panic, reporting skills, and on-the-job training.

Though we have BusinessWeek in common, we’re a varied bunch. Five of us are employed full-time, two work part-time. Two full-timers work at least one day a week from home. Collectively we’ve dealt with a full plate of work/life issues: flextime, childcare crises, special needs children, adoption, single motherhood, college savings plans, health insurance battles, nanny taxes, staying connected from the road, and so on.

Working Parents will be a bit different than the other blogs on this Web site because we’ll be drawing heavily from our personal experience. However, we’ll also be offering perspectives from outside our inner circle, whether from CEOs who set policy or working moms and dads we consider master jugglers.

So I’d like to welcome you to BusinessWeek’s new Working Parents blog, and invite you to join in the conversation about our favorite subjects: our kids and our work.

02:23 PM

Work/Life

TrackBack URL for this entry:

http://blogs.businessweek.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Our New Blog:

The Business of Parenting from Genuine

I have been meaning to show everyone a new blog they may want to put on their blogroll. BusinessWeek has launched a new blog. It’s about time that the MSM has picked up the ball and began to understanding the power of the Mommy and Daddy blog... [Read More]

Tracked on January 25, 2006 02:04 PM

Nice job, Amy! I love the picture of you. And I definitely recall fondly one of those 'Gap breaks' that you took on my behalf - I still have that black shirt, four years later! Lots of love, Lora (the niece)

I thought you too were taking a break from working for Gap Inc. I recently left my position as Senior Corporate Counsel for Gap Inc. to start a website for working mothers, www.mommytrackd.com. I am still doing freelance work for the Company but am spending much more time working on the site. I started the venture for a million reasons, including the obvious quest for work/life balance. I have to say that being self employed does enable a great deal more flexibility. There is still a great deal of work -- you can just do it after the kids have gone to sleep.

Congrats on a much needed and very compelling BLOG. I am officially hooked.

Posted by: Amy at June 8, 2006 05:38 PM

I was a mess when I had to return to work after the birth of my child. The first year I was running to the doctor for ear infections etc. so many times it was almost a weekly occurrence. Luckily I had an understanding boss. The balance isn't easy, but having a good babysitter is a big relief. If you are like me and like to shop online, here are some really cute baby designs you can order for your kids instead of the Gap trip! www.cafepress.com/solsearcher

Posted by: Katie at June 23, 2006 05:53 PM

I just stumbled across this blog at lunchtime, in between the ubiquitous deadlines (I too work in publishing) and the crunch to make it home in time for the babysitter. As a divorced mother of two who had to return to the full time workforce after splitting with my ex, I feel extra stress from being a single parent, commuting from suburban New Jersey to Manhattan (about 2.5 hours per day), and struggling to deal with my ex on financial issues. Maybe in future you could add a single parent to your ranks to reflect these concerns. But either way, you've got me as a reader. Thanks!

Posted by: Jackie at June 29, 2006 02:21 PM

What a neat site! I found it doing some research for a class. I am doing a survey on working mothers...please take a moment to take it for me. Thank you all!

Just wanted to let all parents know about a new device called AMBER stick™ which is the world's first fully portable child identification device. Everyone who has a child needs to have one of this device.

www.amberstickca.com

Posted by: DeAndre at March 6, 2007 05:53 PM

What a GREAT site! I wa looking for something else but i stumbled on it. Im a new working parent (3 months old my lil joy from heaven, michelle). Its really hard to be a working mom, but i feel like cheating because we are being help by michelle's grandparents (all 4 of them, thanks the lord) =)